Longreads

This is your periodic reminder that we're actively seeking pitches: essays of all types, reading lists, and reported features (oh my)! Details here: longreads.com/submissions/

"A power-grid failure on this scale, known as a “black sky” event, disrupts or incapacitates every utility that depends on electricity and computer technology. In the modern age, that means virtually everything." — @henrywismayer for @NoemaMag #longreads noemamag.com/the-unseen-fur…

"Opération Satanique would, in some respects, succeed: The Rainbow Warrior would never lead a flotilla to protest French nuclear testing." @dankois @Slate slate.com/news-and-polit…

"At some point I forgot exactly what it was that John had said, but I never forgot how he had made me feel—that what I wanted was important, and was important simply because I wanted it." Lisa Bubert goes looking for the man who changed her life. longreads.com/2025/07/24/tha…

"Somehow, my fact-checking job had slipped me into the envelope of another human’s most personal realm." — Susan Choi on fact-checking @newyorker for @yalereview yalereview.org/article/susan-…

"I’ve never understood this branding strategy, honestly. If you want your customers to believe they’re falling into a gentle, natural sleep, you should probably think twice before calling your drug Quviviq." @JenSeniorNY @TheAtlantic theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

I walked around Highgate Cemetery and, for my @Longreads debut, told a story of its past and its future. longreads.com/2025/07/22/pro…

"Sometimes bodies were disinterred before they had begun to decompose fully, the flesh chopped up and thrown into bone pits, while the parts of the coffins that could be preserved were reused." longreads.com/2025/07/22/pro…

"There are few human beings, and fewer complications. Sometimes Jesus appears; other times he is more of a suggestion. Sometimes the paintings light up, literally, as if the artist wanted to burn holes in our retinas." —@onesarahjones for @dissentmag dissentmagazine.org/online_article…

"I want what only the best road trips give you: velocity and transcendence." — @PeterAFish hits the highway for @altajournal altaonline.com/dispatches/a64…

"To put it bluntly: Highgate, which hosts the bodies and ashes of around 173,000 people, is running out of space. What do you do when you can’t create new graves? You reuse the old ones." @OhHiRalphJones discovers just how hard it is to keep the dead buried in this fascinating…

"The Buda Wiener Dog Races, now in their 28th year, are like comic-con for the tubular canines with stubby legs and Napoleonic personalities." —Greg Marshall for @TexasHighways texashighways.com/culture/essays…

"And so William Woods or Matthew Keirans, or whoever he was, walked out of jail and back into his old life. To all appearances, he was just another bum with a few loose screws." —@charlie_mccann with a bonkers story for @TheEconomist economist.com/interactive/18…

"Once I figure out a crossword puzzle’s governing theme or trick, I sometimes neglect to complete it. As soon as I get what the designer is up to, it’s game over. I win." —Susannah Pratt for @TheAmScho theamericanscholar.org/puzzled/

"As he speaks about the potentially apocalyptic implications — for Hollywood and for humanity at large — Ray sounds both incredulous and downright scared." —@joshrottenberg for @latimes #longreads latimes.com/entertainment-…